I had indeed been using only one product to co-wash the whole time. It could very well be a sensitivity to one ingredient. The thing is my scalp was never sensitive, sore, red, itchy or anything unpleasant the whole time I was cowashing. My scalp was quite lovely in fact! This leads me to believe that it may not have been an allergy or sensitivity... as it probably would have lead to other symptoms as well. That's why I still think the over-conditioned follicle hypothesis is the most plausible explanation.

Originally Posted by PomegranateCurl

Overconditioned follicles sounds like pseudoscience to me - if that were the case people who uses a rich moisturiser (face or body) would be reporting hair loss in their droves and that is not the case.

Originally Posted by Firefox7275

Your analogy is illogical. They're not reporting hair loss in droves because they're washing their skin with soap or bodywash/facewash and THEN adding moisturizer. I haven't heard of anyone try to wash their skin with a moisturizer for 4 months while vigorously massaging and pulling on their body hair by detangling. Lol! I'm pretty sure I would find my body hair thinning as well if I did that.

Futhermore I find your post unnecessarily condescending. This should be obvious but many aspects of CG are pseudo-scientific. "Overconditioned hair." Help, I think I'm "protein-sensitive." It's not like we all have some definitive way of measuring these things... these are all subjective qualifiers. They help us understand and narrow down what may be going on with our hair. All evidence of cowashing efficacy is anecdotal anyway, which is fine but let's be honest with what it is.

If you can point me to any studies published in peer-reviewed medical/scientific journals that test co-washing efficacy and safety on a large random sample I would be happy to read.

I realize "overconditioned follicle" is not a medical term. For me I used it as shorthand for the point that I think my hair loss is mechanical, and has to do with conditioning (hence softening) the follicle and then pulling it out during the massages/detangling session.

Furthermore I never once said my hair loss could absolutely not come from a specific ingredient allergy or sensitivity, nor a sudden simultaneous onset of a medical condition that also suddenly simultaneously went away when I stopped cowashing. Hey, anything is possible. I'm not being facetious here, I will see my MD and possibly a derm as well about this problem out other variables.

I realize saying anything negative about co-washing on this board is not making me the most well-liked member. Clearly co-washing has its loyal defendants, which is fine. But please understand that I'm not posting all this to be provocative nor to be contrarian. This is my experience. I really wish I could co-wash because my scalp and hair were nice but it had this very negative effect.

Also, other members on the board have spoken up saying they've also experienced hair loss through co-washing. Please respect that our hair/scalp is different than yours and what works for many just isn't working for us and that's okay.